Using Green Tea to Lose Weight
Posted by Rebecca Garcia
In America, with everyone looking for safe alternatives to diet pills, some have found green tea as a safe way to not only lose weight, but as a healthy beverage to replace coffee (which has organic acids that raise blood sugar and insulin and puts a lock on body fat).
For many centuries, many used green tea extracts for medicinal uses in several Asian countries. The benefits that it has brought to those cultures, people feel that not only can they drink something that benefits the body, why not lose a little weight as well. Also, green tea tastes good.
Green tea comes from a leaf known as camellia sinensis and unlike black teas which are made from fermented leaves, green tea is produced by steaming the fresh leaves. This production results in a higher content of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) which is a flavonol. While black tea has 3-10% of polyphenols, green tea has 30-40%.
Because of its high concentration of polyphenols, green tea has been used in other cultures as a way to normalized blood pressure to lowering cancer. Several cups of green tea is known to increase energy and boost metabolism. Green tea is known to provide a high level of polyphenols which are antioxidants with chemotherapeutic and anti-inflammatory effects. So, green tea is known to speed up metabolism and metabolism is know to burn more calories and slows down the ability of the body to store sugars and fat. So, green tea can be effective in losing weight.
Granted, green tea is by no means a miracle drug and it’s not going to make you lose dramatic weight in a day or weeks. It’s more about changing one’s lifestyle and changing eating and drinking habits. Instead of drinking soda or coffee, drinking green tea instead.
Green tea’s calorie-burning properties is due to the EGCG to increase thermogenesis (heat production) in the body by influencing enzymes in the metabolic profess. And increases the amount of calories being burned throughout the day, may it be from digesting, sleeping, walking around the house. Your body is constantly burning calories.
For those who are not really into drinking tea, there are green tea supplements with the green tea extract that has a similar metabolism increase effect as drinking green tea. Also, there are green tea chewing gum available as well.
There has been a lot of studies and research conducted on humans and animals but green tea as a diet pill is not approved by the FDA as there are no longer term studies that have been done. But green tea is looked at as an additional component that people can incorporate into their lives for their weight loss.
But green tea is available as a beverage, pill and even gum in the market and if you do plan to go on a green tea diet, it is advisable to contact your physician, so you can be properly monitored. Especially if you have been diagnosed with a health condition in which the caffeine in green tea may not be for everyone.
